Start gifting
Libro.fm for Business
Start a membership, get two free audiobooks
Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create account
Limited-time offer
Get two free audiobooks when you make the switch!
Now’s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new membership supporting Octavia’s Bookshelf with promo code SWITCH, we’ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.
Make the switch
Gift audiobook credit bundles
You pick the number of credits, your recipient picks the audiobooks, and Octavia’s Bookshelf is supported by your purchase.
Start giftingAnxious Eaters
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreWhat makes fad diets so appealing to so many people? How did there get to be so many different ones, often with eerily similar prescriptions? Why do people cycle on and off diets, perpetually searching for that one simple trick that will solve everything? And how did these fads become so central to conversations about food and nutrition?
Anxious Eaters shows that fad diets are popular because they fulfill crucial social and psychological needs—which is also why they tend to fail. Janet Chrzan and Kima Cargill bring together anthropology, psychology, and nutrition to explore what these programs promise yet rarely fulfill for dieters.
Considering dietary beliefs and practices in terms of culture, nutrition, and individual psychological needs, Anxious Eaters refrains from moralizing or promoting a "right" way to eat. Instead, it offers new ways of understanding the popularity of a wide range of eating trends, including the Atkins Diet and other low- or no-carb diets; beliefs that ingredients like wheat products and sugars are toxic, allergenic, or addictive; food avoidance and "Clean Eating" practices; and paleo or primal diets. Anxious Eaters sheds new light on why people adopt such diets and why these diets remain so attractive even though they often fail.
Kima Cargill is professor of psychology at the University of Washington, Tacoma. Her books include The Psychology of Overeating: Food, Culture, and Consumerism and Food Cults: How Fads, Dogma, and Doctrine Influence Diet.
Janet Chrzan teaches nutritional anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Alcohol: Social Drinking in Cultural Context as well as coeditor of Research Methods for the Anthropological Study of Food and Nutrition and Organic Food, Farming, and Culture.
Rosemary Benson is an Audible #1 bestselling narrator, singer, educator, and stage actress. She has appeared across the US, Canada, and Italy, and regularly performs with several ensembles and big bands. As a passionate learner and audiobook fan, she strives to entertain, enlighten, and encourage, so she is at home in many genres. Her musical ear allows her to produce myriad accents for storytelling, while her expertise in differentiating instruction guides her abilities in nonfiction. She lives across the river from Philadelphia with her husband and a houseful of musical instruments and books.
Octavia’s Bookshelf is proud to partner with Libro.fm to give you a great audiobook experience.